In general, vehicle front side members make up a skeleton construction of an engine compartment near the front of vehicles The front side members also provide a reinforcement for installing an engine and a transmission within the vehicle. A fender apron is mounted at an external lateral side of the front side member. The fender apron typically includes a fender apron inner panel and a fender apron upper panel. The fender apron inner panel directly couples to a lateral side of the front side member, while the fender apron upper panel, coupling to the fender apron inner panel, is disposed at an upper external side of the front side member.
The fender apron upper panel includes an installation part of a front-end module integrally assembled with a headlamp, hood latch, radiator, and electric fan to the front-end carrier. Accordingly, an important feature of the fender apron upper panel is to provide a sufficiently rigid mounting structure to tightly support the front-end module.